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Hey everyone, I just had a quick question. With Vallejo Model Color, what ratio of paint to water do you guys usually use for basecoating? Thanks.

The real answer is: there is no proper ratio...

Each pot of paint will be different from the next and some colors also have more pigment than others. For example yellow, being a very expensive pigment to manufacture, always has less pigment - and therefor less coverage, and so your ratio plan will almost always fail.

A guideline isn't a bad idea, but again there is no perfect ratio... Now the other question is; how comfortable are you with thinned paints? For a basecoat of course you do not want them to be too thin, but you will still get better overall results doing several thin coats instead of one thick coat.

Start with something like 3:1 paint:water and see how you like that... perhaps that is still too thick, perhaps too thin for the way you paint... nobody can really give you 'your' perfect formula is basically my general message.



Automatically Appended Next Post:
And also keep in mind that some paint pots overtime may loose some moisture and require additional thinning for that reason as well.

Well, I have been messing around with a few different ratios. I found that anything less than a 1:1 ratio of paint to water doesn't really seem to stick to the model. It puddles more than covers. I've been getting decent results with 1:1 but I would like to work with thinner coats for a smoother finish. Is there a trick or something to using thinned paints? Like I said, it seems to puddle on the surface as soon as I apply it with my brush. Thanks.

As a rule I take all brand new paints and add about 5-10 drops of 10:1 water-flo aid mix depending on how thick the first drop of paint is.

After that I only dilute on the palette if I'm doing large batch work(which I then also add slo-dri and matte medium to in order to extend the working time of the paint for large batches). If I'm using single drops of paint at a time and I need it thinned, I just leave water on my brush after rinsing it to thin it down in smaller increments than drops allow.

If you want to dilute without getting watery, you HAVE to use a flo aid additive. This will break the surface tension of the paint so that it requires less water to dilute it while maintaining workable levels of pigment and fixer.

I also use matte medium for certain things. This will inhibit brush strokes in the paint, making large surface areas like space marine armor much smoother with fewer coats of paint.

I find that matte medium is less needed in WFB models as they don't tend to have large flat surfaces as everything is more organic and not "manufactured". Things like tanks and synthetic armors are much easier to paint with matte medium added.

Basically, the 3 mainstay additives are flo-aid, matte medium, and slo-dri. Experiment with each on some throw away models to get a feel for how they work and the uses will present themselves to you.

This may be a stupid question but what is commonly used as a flo aid? Thanks.

I use Liquitex Flo-Aid. http://www.dickblick.com/products/liquitex-flow-aid-fluid-additive/

keep in mind you mix this 1 drop per 10 drops of water. So 4oz. goes a very long way. You can use other things as well, but the actual product isn't expensive by any means.

might as well add links to the other additives I use:

http://www.dickblick.com/products/liquitex-gloss-and-matte-mediums/

http://www.dickblick.com/products/liquitex-slow-dri-gel-and-fluid-mediums-and-additives/

I don't mean to trivialize the effectiveness of any of those products, but to be honest you don't really need them.

You can paint with mixes as thin as colored-water (thinned with just water) and many people do... but it takes a little practice to prevent the paint from running all over your model, or even just pooling in one spot. Some paints also thin better than others; and some don't thin well at all - in which case mediums and flo-aids will certainly help. The matte-mediums can also help work almost like training-wheels for thinning paints because while the pigment is thinned the consistency is still somewhat thick. But, I think it's worth while to learn thinning with water... even make a simple and cheap wet-pallette.

If its pooling then you are placing too much paint in one spot, rather than pulling/pushing the paint into your desired area, and you likely have too much paint on the brush tip. Managing how much paint is on the brush is the sole key to painting with thinned paints. Too much and it runs everywhere... it doesn't take long to get the hang of though.

Good luck, and get some pics up.

The problem could also be that the models are too greasy, washing metal and plastic minis with simple warm water and dishwashing liquid can help enormously. Artist quality products DO make a difference but if you are really on a budget you can actually just use a teeny tiny amount of washing-up liquid into the water-paint mix. As the others have said you really do just have to experiment with the ratios and find what suits you personally and the job at hand. Brush size and the amount of paint loaded on the brush all play a part.

Like I said, as a fantasy painter I mostly just use my flo-aid mix these days on wfb models. Slo dri is only really useful for painting out of GW pots or for large amounts of paint being put on a palette for batch painting. Matte medium has specific uses that don't come up often for me, but when I painted space marines I used it alot.